DESIGN FOR BEHAVIOR CHANGE: AN ELABORATION-BASED APPROACH TO PERSUASION IN PRODUCT DESIGN
Year: 2015
Editor: Christian Weber, Stephan Husung, Gaetano Cascini, Marco Cantamessa, Dorian Marjanovic, Monica Bordegoni
Author: Montazeri, Soodeh; Panos, Papalambros; Rich, Gonzales
Series: ICED
Institution: 1: Fors Marsh Group, United States of America; 2: University of Michigan, United States of America
Section: Human Behaviour in Design, Design Education
Page(s): 001-010
ISBN: 978-1-904670-74-2
ISSN: 2220-4334
Abstract
This paper investigates the premise that products can be designed in a principled persuasive way to induce behavior change; specifically it explores how designers can adopt behavior change theories from psychology to design products that make people behave more environmentally responsible. Studies were conducted in two parts; Part I entails a retrospective study of persuasive products with behavior change intent. Adopting the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion from Psychology, these products were studied with respect to the elaboration of the persuasive message. Part II presents 2 empirical studies of behavior change based on the ELM to test the effectiveness of these strategies in product design. The studies showed that the aesthetics of a product can influence how it is used and can prompt users to change their behavior. This work shows that if designers identify the right information-processing route, the visual appearance of a product can cue desirable behavioral responses. This is an example of an evidence-based approach to understand the link between perceived formal and meaningful properties of design and how these properties influence behavioral responses.
Keywords: Human Behaviour In Design, Design Cognition, Sustainability, Elaboration Likelihood Model, Persuasion